Robots are the not-too-distant future of war

The need for humans to participate in armed conflicts could soon be over. The next generation of military hardware might be able to think and act for itself.

Military hardware will soon consist of “autonomous robots that know neither pity nor fear” â€” quite a step up from the current generation of UAVs and drones operated by humans from the safety of military bases hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.

Ever since drones such as the Predator were prepared and armed for use in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, stealth weapons have played a key role in the West’s “War on Terror.” It was a Predator drone that located Osama Bin Laden in 2011, and it was a Predator drone that launched the missile attack earlier this month that killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud. The drones have clocked more than 200,000 hours of flying time in Afghanistan since their inception.